The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for automatically vending articles and, in particular, to a programmable card actuated apparatus for vending newspapers and the like.
Automatic vending machines which dispense stored articles and are controlled by cards having programmable data carriers are known. In addition, such cards can be used to access the interior of the machines for servicing and maintenance.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,513 shows an automatic vending machine for flat materials such as newspapers. The stack of newspapers is inclined and that position is maintained by a vertical back wall and a telescopically acting rod device. For the delivery of a newspaper, a motor drives gearing which is connected with the rod device, whereby the downward moving rod device releases the uppermost newspaper in the stack, which newspaper under the influence of gravity slides from the stack and drops into a delivery slot. The movement of the motor is controlled by control and memory units which are connected with a magnetic card reader. Data, such as machine codes, subscriber codes, number of deliveries per subscriber and day, as well as specific delivery dates, are transferred to the control and memory units with the aid of a magnetic card which can be read by the card reader.
A drawback of this machine is that, for certain applications, the varied capabilities of the cards cannot be used. Thus, the cost/profit ratio is so high that the use of such cards in large quantities becomes economically unfeasible.